Benjamin de Groot
@blbdegroot.bsky.social
Art historian, cynic, camera monkey, mini ruiner
It's not that Pratchett was prescient; it's that we're dumb monkeys who keep falling for the same tricks over and over ...and over.
Silent Green The old crematorium-turned-cultural hub in the Wedding suburb of Berlin. (2024) 📷 #nikonfe2 w. 50mm f/1.2 ai-s 🎞 #ilfordhp5 #filmphotography #filmisalive #grainisgood #shootfilmstaybroke #analoglove #silentgreen #berlin
Listening to the latest @wtyppod.bsky.social and I had to make a quick 'n shoddy drawing, to get it out of my system.
Matsuri The annual #Japanmarkt is a place to encounter Japanese crafts, food and martial arts in #leiden #leidencity #japanmarkt2026 #fans #ceramics #canallife #photography #nikonzf
It's time to do that thing you've been wanting to do
Memories of better times in early morning #Venice. #filmphotography on the Riva degli Schiavoni with #Sangiorgiomaggiore across the water 📷 #NikonFE2 w. Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 🎞 Kodak #Gold200 #filmisalive #shootfilmstaybroke #analoglove #travelphotography #throwbackthursday
The last of the spring poems. #cherryblossoms in #amsterdamsebos in their last week of bloom. Just enough time for some #hanami and #flowerphotography
It's #hanami season over here. The #cherryblossoms at the Museum of Ethnology are starting to bloom properly. 📷 #nikonzf 🔍 #zmc105mmf/2.8
Ghost of the mountain 📷 #pentax67 #165mmSMCf/2.8 🎞 Kodak #portra400 #filmphotography #mediumformat #filmisalive #blackcat #shootfilmstaybroke
Hooglandse Kerk: Lingering Snow 📷 #Pentax67, #55mmSMCf/4 🎞 Kodak #Portra400 #eightviewsofLeiden #雷電八景 #比良暮雪 #lingeringsnow #mitate #見立 #winterinleidn #shootfilmstaybroke #filmisalive
Kodak Gold loves autumm foliage. First experience with #homescanning and playing with NegativeLabPro, and enjoying how it does turn the Leiden park to gold.
I'm no political strategist, but the datadump of Epstein e-mails feels like some people on the Hill are just done and have chosen the nuclear option. I get the sense this is the political equivalent of the Hiroshima strike: play ball unless you want us to drop another one like this.
The average university student's email reminders for due dates are more securely protected than France's premier museum. That tracks, I suppose...
Perry Areolar@perryodontal.bsky.social · 9mo agothe password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre" www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...
Now that we have another insane story out there regarding Autism and Tylenol, it probably bears pointing out - especially for those hanging onto the disputed Harvard study - that AT BEST thatvis a highly disputed hypothesis suggesting it MAYBE plays a role in COMBINATION with a LOT of other factors.
Zeer schizofreen stukje journalisme waarin Kirk worden geschaard onder "radicale vrijheid van meningsuiting" terwijl zijn uitspraken in NL wettelijk haatzaaien en discriminatie vallen, en Nollkaemper's opmerkingen over zelfcensuur uit hun verband getrokken lijken om een cryptofascist tot nut te zijn
'Nederlandse universiteiten schuwen debat met andersdenkenden'
Is er op Nederlandse universiteiten nog wel ruimte voor een open debat? "Radicale vrijheid van meningsuiting bestaat in Nederland niet."
nos.nl
www.reuters.com/world/uk/new... Few things underscore "tyranny" quite like a state institution fearfully and desperately suppressing the work of a world-renowned artist
New Banksy mural at London's High Court shows judge striking protester
British street artist Banksy has painted a mural on London's High Court depicting a judge beating a protester, possibly in reaction to the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators supporting banned group Palestine Action.
reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/americ... Indiscriminate murder like this got Dutuerte on the ICC's wanted list, and Venezuela could probably just take this to the Maritime Tribunal as a violation of seafaring rights. If you aim to be cruel at every level, you *will* end up finding the one that punishes you.
US military kills 11 people in strike on alleged drug boat from Venezuela, Trump says
The U.S. military killed 11 people on Tuesday in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics, President Donald Trump said, in the first known operation since his administration's recent deployment of warships to the southern Caribbean.
reuters.com
Ah yes, the *checks notes* 19th century unelected despotic ruler, 20th century fashist and 21st century neo-nazi and neo-tsarist school of architecture and city planning.
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 11mo agoPresident Trump has signed an executive order that requires federal buildings in Washington to maintain a classical style of Greco-Roman architecture associated with the marble columns and austere hallways of the Supreme Court and U.S. Capitol.
In an age of social media enshittification and the wave of AI slop, suddenly those words from 1930 art historian dissidents like #Horkheimer and #Adorno seem almost prophetic. Per Cothren and d'Alleva, Methods and Theories of Art History, 2005
Some more #Battletech mini's "finished". My #periphery #magistracyofcanopus based mercenary unit is reinforced by a 'dedicated heavy recon lance' and very definitely not whatever they found in the bargain lots at Discount Dan's Pretty Okay Battlemechs and Bubba J's Mechoplex.
Today we lost a photographer who was capable of capturing both the romance and the rawness of Italy and Venezia in particular. Addio signore Berengo Gardin. May your work forever stand as a testament and a legacy. www.reuters.com/world/italia...
Italian black-and-white photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin dies at 94
Gianni Berengo Gardin, one of Italy's most celebrated photographers, whose black-and-white images chronicled social and cultural changes, has died at the age of 94, the Italian Photography Centre, where he served as president, said on Thursday.
reuters.com
bbc.com/news/article... While non-binding, this is a rare spot of actual good news and a small ray of hope in holding nations accountable for their inaction on climate change.
Top UN court says countries can sue each other over climate change
The decision from the world's highest court has been welcomed by developing nations at most risk from climate change.
bbc.com
Missing mornings like this at #luxortemple in #Egypt. Nothing beats the play of light and shaow created by the morning light. #nikonzf #travelphotography #ancientegypt #ancientruins #ancienttemple
